The Holistic Enneagram

Love and Relationships in three centers: body, heart and mind

A workshop with Peter O’Hanrahan

What do we mean when we say we love someone? Like the words spirit or soul, love has many meanings. Is it a feeling in the heart? Is it taking action on behalf of another? Is it a need for secure attachment? Is it a product of our biochemistry? Perhaps all of these. Mr. Gurdjieff spoke of love being expressed from each of three centers – in very different ways.

• With the body center – instinctual love, taking action of behalf of the other.

• With the head center – seeing the other without bias or projection and knowing their true potential.

Now, with the benefit of the enneagram of personality types, we can discover how our type structure affects the way we express love and care from our body, heart, and mind. And how our type patterns and defenses get in the way.

In this workshop we will explore how we can develop each of our centers, and our capacity to love, by understanding the strengths and limitations of our type structure. How is friendship different from intimacy? How do we experience the attraction and pitfalls of romantic love? How do show our care for family members, students and clients? Which centers are we using and how much? How do we want to be loved? How do our security needs become involved?

The format will include presentations, inner practices, panel interviews and small group discussions.